Monday, October 31, 2016

Mostly Knitting

Yesterday, I went for a walk in the Bois de Vincennes.  First stop was at Stade Pershing to see some of the game between the PUC and the Wallabies. PUC I get; it stands for Paris Université Club and the baseball section has been around for more than a hundred years. It might not sound great in English, but we speak French, here. This is the club I belonged to when I was a scorekeeper and this was Louis' club when he played. Wallabies? They are from Normandy, from Louviers, not far from Rouen. Why did they choose an Australian animal?
Back to the game. I don't know what the score was when I strolled in, but I think I watched 2 innings, maybe it was only an inning and a half. There were so many errors on the part of the PUC defense, I couldn't keep track of how many runs were scored. Then, when the PUC finally came up to bat, without hearing the slightest clink of the aluminum bats, I saw too many walked in runs. The bleachers, if that's what you can call them, have been condemned, already, for several years. The city replaced the old splintered wood with plastic that melted out of shape, almost immediately. So, you climb over the barriers and sit, sort of, for as long as you can stand it. It was warm and sunny, but after losing all interest in the game, I got up and continued my walk.
The fall colors are starting to show up nicely. Lots of people were out rowing on the Lac des Minimes. I finished going around the lake and had, what I assume will be, my last ice cream cone of the year from the stand. I turned towards Fontenay-sous-Bois and came home that way. According to MapMyWalk, that was a 5.67 km. walk.
I got home and picked up my crochet work. I'm adding a scallop edge to the skirt hem of a dress I knitted on the machine last week. It's an Anne Lavene design. I'll add the same edge to the sleeves and to the waist, when I join the bodice to the skirt. I made it with a fully closed skirt, seam on the side. I used Yeomans 100% Cotton Slub CK2, which, I have decided, I don't like. The idea is to dye this once it's all assembled. That's why I chose it, but the yarn kept getting all knotted up, coming off the cone, and I found it tedious to work with. Even crocheting, it gets all knotted up, so it's not because of the speed in machine knitting that made it do that. Also, it knitted up slanted, so it's awfully hard to block and get straight, again. I'm still not sure the center of the bodice will find itself in the center. One think I can say in favor of the yarn is that it is economical. I bought 2 cones and have not even used half of the first, even though I made 2 bodices! I thought I had made a mistake, when the first one looked so off-balance, so I made a second one, paying extra special attention not to make any mistakes -- and I didn't -- but it came out just as skewed. I'm going to finish this thing and see what it's like all put together.
Before that, I had tried to make a sweater for Paul, a double-knit. It looks all knit on the wrong side and on the right side, it looks like vertical stripes. It looks all stretched out in the picture. Doing the 5-stitch crossed cables every two rows turned out to be too much for me. There were some dropped stitches; I had to start over; again, dropped stitches, again, start over. When I discovered the dropped stitches, again, I gave up. The color doesn't show well, here. It's a dark, inky blue. Beautiful, fine, merino wool, also from Yeoman's. I had the yarn shipped to France. Yes, it was a bit expensive to do that, but still cheaper than a trip by car to England. (I ordered a lot of yarn!)
For anyone still interested, AARO had its own presidential election debate on October 19. We invited all four parties, but the Green party did not respond to our invitation. We posted the video the next day. It was a good evening. Cordial. Nothing like what we see going on in the US.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Back from a Birthday Week

We got home, yesterday, from a short week in England. It was C's birthday and we arrived just in time for the big family celebration with everyone. This time we took the Eurostar. For the two of us, managing to reserve enough time in advance, we managed to get reasonably priced tickets that made the journey less expensive than going by car. When we go by car, we have to take into consideration not only the tunnel fee, but also the toll on the French autoroute and the gas. When we go by Eurostar, we have to consider not only the Eurostar fare, but also the fare up to Northampton. All in all, the Eurostar is more comfortable. We took a big suitcase this time because there were birthday gifts on the TO route and an accessory for one of the knitting machines on the RETURN route. Next time, if we take the train, we'll do everything possible to fit into our "overhead" cases to share the lugging. In any case, we got to Duston in time for lunch.
For a first birthday, a kid has no idea of what's going on. For a second birthday, they start getting the idea, but the ideal birthday, I think, is the third. C was so, so, so happy it was her birthday and was so excited to be the star of the day she couldn't keep still. She had helped her Mommy make the cake and it was the "Best Ever Chocolate Cake" from the AAWE recipe book that we all swear is absolutely the best ever. It was decorated with Smarties and raspberries and blueberries. (As usual, I only share photos with family and if I forgot to add you to the sharing, then email or phone me and I will.) It was very, very good. So was the whole lunch, but really for a birthday, it's all about the cake.
Cake was followed by opening presents, which took a bit of time as the cousins' gifts were very small in size and each individually wrapped. C is a very meticulous girl and tries very hard to open gifts carefully so as not to tear the paper. The London family had to leave almost immediately after the gifts were all opened and so did Daddy, who was off to a conference.
Monday, once everyone had gone to school, day care, and work, we got on a bus and went to the city center. Building around Northampton is booming; Duston seems to have a new housing estate under construction each time we go. This does not seem to affect downtown Northampton. The empty shops are still mostly empty or turned into charity shops; there are several pound shops. Paul needed a new sweater, which we found at the Edinburgh Woolen Mill shop, and I found what I needed at M&S, but nothing else caught our eye, not even for lunch, so we picked up some sandwiches and headed back. We got on a bus that I knew would get us back home, but I had no idea it would take us on such a long route. We discovered how big Duston, at least New Duston, is.
The next day, we ventured down the Main Road to a coffee and lunch place that features lots of "homemade" items on the menu. I wish I knew where "home" was. It was all microwave-reheated. The next couple of days, we were happy getting lunch from the Co-op. I could have fished around in the fridge and freezer at home for lunch, but really didn't feel like it.
So, that's it. Home in Nogent, now.